Bardstown Bourbon Company: Normandie Calvados Brandy Barrel

Bardstown Bourbon Company, one of the most innovative American whiskey brands around, continues to push the envelope in what it means to produce world-class bourbon for the masses. As part of Bardstown Bourbon Company’s Distillery Reserve series, the Normandie Calvados Brandy Barrel Finish is the brand’s latest drop.

Bardstown Bourbon Company, which we’ve named as one of our favorites in recent times, has previously taken great steps in providing unique barrel finishes, including KBS Founders Stout, Plantation Rum, and Cathedral Oak, among several others.

For the Distillery Reserve series, the first of the drops was the previously mentioned Cathedral Oak, with the Hokkaido Mizunara Oak Barrel Finish being released over the summer. The third release for this year is the Normandie Calvados Brandy Barrel Finish, which aims to be Bardstown’s boldest experiment yet.

To explain to Spirit.Ed readers, Calvados is a fruit brandy made from apples and sometimes other fruits in Normandy, France. Calvados is largely made from fermented apple cider, which is later aged in oak barrels. Those barrels that held Calvados are what Bardstown’s high-quality bourbon gets finished in.

Minister of State Jean-Baptiste Colbert forbade the sale of Calvados in a bid to protect France’s wine brandy trade in the 1600s. Calvados has since exploded as a fruit brandy with a similar designated appellation based on specific rules similar to cognac, another French product.

Normandie Calvados Brandy Barrel Finish is the final of the Distillery Reserve releases of 2025, and was released in limited quantities and bottled in the smaller 375ml bottles, owing to the small batch release in order to stretch out the stock.

The bourbon is a blend of 12 and 13-year-old bourbon from Indiana and finished for 28 months inside the former casks from the Christian Drouin house, an award-winning and celebrated Calvados producer. At 104.2 proof, this appears to be an approachable whiskey and not a palate-busting proof bomb like some special releases tend to be.

“Three generations of meticulous craftsmanship and nearly 300 gold medals have made Christian Drouin House an icon of Calvados,” said Dan Callaway, Master Blender, Lofted Spirits. “Over the course of the past two years, these five barrels have become the apple of my eye – the most attention per barrel project aging in Bardstown. The result: a cross-continental conversation in a glass that bridges centuries of tradition on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Normandie Calvados Brandy Barrel Finish Distillery Reserve will be available at Bardstown Bourbon Company’s distillery gift shop in Bardstown and its Louisville Tasting Room on November 28. The 375ml release will retail at $99.99.

To learn more about Bardstown Bourbon’s array of offerings, click here.

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Photo: Bardstown Bourbon Company.